WarioWare D.I.Y.

WarioWare D.I.Y.

Reviewer: Louis Bedigian

Game development is sort of like filmmaking with a much harsher learning curve. While anyone can grab a cheap camera and attempt to bring a story to life, it takes so much more effort to design a game. That’s not to say that filmmaking is easy, but it is definitely more user-friendly.

Occasionally, professional game developers try to remove the barriers to game design by developing a game with homemade creations in mind. This could be something as simple as a level editor, or something as complex as the RPG Maker series, which allows consumers to design their own role-playing games.
If those concepts sound intriguing, then Nintendo might have developed the perfect game for you: WarioWare: D.I.Y. This do-it-yourself adventure is packed with pre-made mini-games to play through, but players will quickly discover that those games are merely icing on the cake. The cake, as it turns out, is something you have to mix, bake, and frost yourself. And when you do, the results are quite amazing.

No Programming Required
During the training stages in WarioWare: D.I.Y., players will frequently encounter a common term used by game developers: AI (artificial intelligence). Unlike the AI they work with, which must be written from scratch using A+ mathematical skills, this game doesn’t require you to know much about the details of real-world programming.
Instead, WarioWare: D.I.Y. uses a deep (but easy to comprehend) system that involves a series of pre-programmed selections. With those selections, players can develop a five-second mini-game that features their own personal drawings, a few frames of animation, sound effects assigned to specific elements, an original score (which can be pieced together using instruments, quirky audio effects, or sounds from classic NES games), and basic touch screen interactivity.
If the five-second timeframe sounds crazy, then look no further than WarioWare’s other offerings: this is not a series that’s built on length. It’s a short-and-sweet, ultra-quirky franchise with challenges that will earn smiles from series veterans and baffle the minds of newcomers.
“Wait, so you’re telling me I have to tap the hand on screen to make it pick this guy’s giant nose?”
Yes, that’s exactly what WarioWare is telling you. But in WarioWare: D.I.Y., you don’t have to settle for silly and potentially snotty mini-games because you can make your own.

The Creation Process
After running through the first batch of pre-made mini-games offered in WarioWare: D.I.Y., I was a bit concerned about the process of making my own mini-games. It’s not that I didn’t want to, but having played with other creation tools, I was afraid it’d be an arduous process that was only fun when the game was complete.
That’s what makes WarioWare: D.I.Y. so different from the rest. The game provides a simplified Photoshop-style tool that lets you draw whatever you want. There are dozens of colors and background tiles (including one that paints a flame and another that paints Mario-inspired bricks). Three pen sizes are available, allowing players to draw (almost) as precisely as possible. To add even more detail, the image that you’re working on can be enlarged up to 16 times.
In addition to having a very well designed paint and drawing tool, the game contains a music creator that is really fun to use. Five audio tracks (four standard tracks plus one set aside for rhythm) are available. The drum set alone is pretty extensive: you can choose to use a standard percussion set, or use electric drums, toy drums (which is essentially an amusing set of sound effects), beat-box drums, Asian drums that provide an exotic jingle, or choose from 14 sounds made from pots and pans. My favorite is the 8-bit drums, which includes the fireball and death sound effects from the old Mario games.
The other instrument types are just as varied: piano, organ, harpsichord, melodica, flute, wood flute, trumpet, saxophone, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, banjo, violin, marimba, vibraphone, timpani, and more sound effects-based instruments than could ever be listed here.

Not For Every Wario Fan
The only downside to WarioWare: D.I.Y. is that it’s not technically a true WarioWare sequel. Since players are expected to have fun creating their own games, the pre-made content amounts to half (or less) of what it should be. WarioWare games are never long, and they rarely have the kind of replay value of, say, a Mario game. But if you were hoping this would be a true successor to WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Wii, you might be disappointed.
If, however, you’ve always wanted to make your own WarioWare mini-games – or have had the desire to create any game at all – WarioWare: D.I.Y. is an impressive package that won’t let you down.

By gamezone

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition:LeChuck's Revenge

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge

Reviewer: Steven Hopper

Back in the bygone era of PC gaming, the adventure genre was at once a unique and flourishing one, allowing for experiences that you simply couldn’t find on consoles at the time. Publishers like Sierra and LucasArts were releasing classic games left and right, many of which would be considered the best titles the genre has to offer even today. Certainly at the top of the heap was LucasArts’ Monkey Island franchise. Combining classic point-and-click mechanics, great puzzles, and extremely funny dialogue, the Monkey Island series was a hit with gamers and definitely fantastic for adventure fans at the time.

Last year marked a great moment for fans of the Monkey Island franchise and its swashbuckling hero, Guybrush Threepwood, as LucasArts released an updated HD version of the classic first entry to the series. Now, LucasArts has revisited the original franchise yet again with the release of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Monkey Island 2: Special Edition applies the same model to the original game’s sequel, updating it for modern consoles and PCs with streamlined controls and high-def visuals while still keeping the original foundation of the game in place, including great puzzles and snappy humor. If you loved last year’s trip back to Monkey Island, then you should definitely check this follow-up remake out.
Monkey Island 2 finds our hero in a precarious position, dangling from a rope with one hand while holding onto a full treasure chest with the other. Your potential love interest Elaine Marley seems to drop down on a rope to assist Guybrush, demanding an explanation. It seems that following LeChuck’s defeat at the end of the first game, Guybrush has become somewhat of a blowhard, regaling his exploits and courageous journey to anyone within earshot. Sporting a sprouty pubescent beard and wearing fancy pirate regalia, Guybrush is searching for a mythical treasure, known as Big Whoop, when it appears that the once ghost pirate (now zombie pirate) LeChuck is back and champing at the bit for revenge against his one-time dispatcher.

The original game’s sharp wit and sense of humor return in fine form in this updated sequel. The characters are rife with snappy one-liners, and the game’s puzzles are pretty funny, often requiring you to think a bit unconventionally in order to complete them. This can mean enticing a rat into a trap with the clever use of cheese doodles, or positioning a practical joke above a bully’s door in order to proceed.
Instead of simply updating the game exactly the way last year’s The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition did, the crew at LucasArts did one further and updated the interface. The game is even more polished to work on the Xbox 360 controller, moving the control of the cursor to the right thumbstick, while controlling Guybrush’s walking with the left thumbstick. By pressing on the right trigger when highlighting an object of interest in the environment, you’re able to open up a menu of contextual actions, while the left trigger will open your inventory. The new control scheme is comfortable, and does a great job of modernizing the overall experience.
The new controls are definitely an improvement over the first Monkey Island remake, but they’re still not perfect. While it’s generally agreeable, using the analog stick to walk can cause you to get stuck on objects in the environment, can feel a little cumbersome at times. For some reason, Guybrush gets slow and twitchy when moving at an angle as well.

Graphically, Monkey Island 2: Special Edition has received a comparable update to last year’s Monkey Island: Special Edition, and looks even better. The hand-drawn environments and character models fit well with the overall humorous tone of the game, sporting a clean, cartoonish look. The music and sound have also gotten a once-over, with the soundtrack being updated very nicely and great voice work throughout. Additionally, Monkey Island 2 allows you to listen to the developer’s commentary, listening to the creators’ for a inside look at the game’s creation. Of course, if you’re an old-school purist, the game is playable in with classic graphics, MIDI-based music, and the original SCUMM interface, just like last year’s iteration.
Aside from some finicky movements, Monkey Island 2: Special Edition is another outstanding remake of a true adventure game classic. Whether you’re a gamer that missed out on this game the first time around (shame on you), or someone who simply wants to experience this hilarious adventure in a new light, this is your chance.

By gamezone

Spotlight On: Cities XL

If you haven't played a good city-building game in a while, you may want to keep an eye out for Cities XL, which will try to combine the peaceful pursuit of building up a tiny virtual city with cooperative (and competitive) online elements and Web-based social networking. We've previously taken an in-depth look at the game and its unusual premise and have new details to report today.

To catch you up, here's a quick recap: Cities XL will basically offer an offline experience right out of the box and a continuing online experience should you want to pursue the dream of being the world's most successful architect. Like in many other city-building games, such as the SimCity series, the out-of-box, offline game in Cities XL will let you use editing tools to build up the virtual city of your dreams, using powerful tools that will include some 500 different buildings, so you can click, drag, copy-paste, and brush-paint tiny individual houses or sprawling roadway networks, then maintain your population's happiness and income while using your funds to build a bigger, better, happier city.
The online portion of the game will let you go beyond just puttering around in your own city; you'll actually be able to, for instance, putter around other players' cities on foot, as well as monitor the progress of your city online through the game's Web site, which will act as both an online scoreboard (which ranks all players' cities by their relative wealth, popular happiness, and other statistics) and a social hub. The Web site will let you create your own profile, write your own blog, post images, and maintain a friends list. You'll also be able to use the online interface to trade any excess resources that your city, or other players' cities, may have produced. All cities produce and consume resources (such as energy, power, and cash), and depending on how you've built yours, you may end up with a town that creates a daily surplus of this or that resource. This daily surplus will disappear from your city's coffers at the end of the day, each day, to avoid the dreaded practice of "farming"--in this case, repeatedly hoarding resources each day until you have an unreasonably huge stockpile. Resources will be traded in the form of "tokens"--one token will represent one unit of resources, and developer Monte Cristo currently intends to let the resource market regulate itself, rather then get too involved in the player economy. However, since you will have access to resource trading online, you won't necessarily need to create a well-rounded, self-sustaining commune. For instance, if you want, you can build an industrial wasteland that's nothing but factories and smokestacks--and just trade for whichever resources you don't generate.

Resource trading will be important not only for generally keeping your town running, but also for creating "megastructures"--famous wonders of the world that will grant powerful bonuses to whoever builds them. (Cities XL will ship with about 20 of these right out of the box, and more will be added at a rate of about five or so per month). In order to build one of these impressive monuments, you'll need the blueprints, which will randomly appear in the accounts of a handful of users every so often (and can be used to start construction immediately, or traded for resources, or given away for free...otherwise the blueprints will expire in about a week after use to prevent players from accumulating them in their accounts). Megastructures will be fantastically expensive projects that go through three different phases of construction (and each phase will require a different mix of resources). Successfully building one will grant serious bonuses for your city; for instance, plopping the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of your metropolis will grant your city powerful economic bonuses as tourists from your principality and from neighboring towns take a holiday to come see your wondrous new masterpiece. And the tourists will build up the local economy, presumably by purchasing cheap T-shirts and souvenir coffee mugs.
However, megastructures won't offer clear-cut, no-strings-attached advantages; they'll actually have their own set of realistic concerns that you as the city's mayor and chief architect must address. For starters, an attractive monument will bring in many guests and their big, bulky tour buses--and the buses may congest traffic and lead to noise pollution that creates unhappiness for any of the locals who live or work nearby. More importantly, if your city becomes too wondrous and begins drawing in too many of your neighbors' citizens, your neighbors (other players who are in control of their own cities) may become jealous that you're getting all this great tourist revenue and they aren't. In fact, this will be a real concern for all online land barons when they go looking to trade resources. Yes, you need four tokens of oil for your own town and you'd be willing to trade four tokens of water...but do you really want to give that water to someone who will just end up spending it on building an Eiffel Tower that will draw in your citizens and line your neighbor's pockets?

Cities XL is still in development and will likely go to a beta-testing phase in the coming months. The game is scheduled to launch later this year.

We Just Played The Last Remnant for PC

Last year's The Last Remnant for the Xbox 360 tried to push console role-playing games in new directions by including larger-scale battles with battalions (or "unions") of characters massed to fight as a group. The game took place in an unusual alternate-fantasy world where talking cat-men with four arms routinely served as royal guardians, and where, like in many console games of this sort, many of the human males that served as main characters were young, slender, and had fabulous hair.

We got our hands on the PC version of the game and have played through the early part of it, and have found the game to so far be a faithful translation of the original console game. Like in the Xbox 360 version of The Last Remnant, the PC version of the game starts with the story of Rush Sykes, a plucky young lad who sets out to rescue his kidnapped sister, without the help of his workaholic parents (who are off toiling on a potentially world-saving project involving ancient artifacts known as "remnants"). Over the course of the game, he meets various characters (who may or may not be cat-men) to join him in his quest and eventually lead into battle as part of the game's larger-scale combat system.

Like with the majority of console role-playing games since the original Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior from the 8-bit NES, The Last Remnant's combat is turn-based, and alternates turns between your party's characters (and their planned attack abilities) and your enemies' turns. Each character in The Last Remnant will have various different abilities that will be specialized in such areas as casting magical spell effects or swinging a sword, and additional abilities that can be performed at a cost of "action points," or AP; but interestingly, you won't have direct control over them beyond giving general orders, so you'll effectively act as both a general and a soldier at the same time. However, by attacking and defeating enemies in sequence, you can perform longer and longer "chains" that will net you more experience points so that Rush and his buddies will gain levels (and the new abilities that come with them) faster.

The PC version of The Last Remnant seems to run just fine and we encountered no framerate hiccups or significant technical problems of any kind as we played. The game was built using the Unreal Engine and this powerful technology seems to do a good job of translating the colorful graphical look and intricate, cat-man-filled world that first debuted in the console game. The Last Remnant is scheduled for release later this month on PC.

Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Review

The End Is Nigh serves up light beat-'em-up fare with a Watchmen flavor. Those hungry for anything substantial will be disappointed.

With all the critical acclaim for the Watchmen comic series and all the hype surrounding the new movie adaptation, it's possible that folks might have certain expectations for the new video game set in the same universe. However, if you are hoping to find some of the comic's depth and maturity here, or are looking forward to reliving your favorite scenes from the movie, you will be sorely disappointed. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a shallow beat-'em-up game set years before the events of the comic. Its narrow scope may disappoint some, and the Watchmen veneer isn't very deep. Yet thanks to lively, brutal combat and impressive visuals, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a fun, fist-flinging romp for the few hours that it lasts. The $20 price tag is a steep one, but for anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned beat-'em-up, The End Is Nigh delivers.

Pretty much all you do for the entire game is beat up bad guys, and the combat is good enough to stay fun throughout. Whether you're playing as Rorschach or Nite Owl (the only two playable characters), the fundamentals are simple: light attack, heavy attack, block, and throw. Peppering your opponent with attacks works well, and there are some nice animation touches that make even this basic combat enjoyable. Throwing enemies is particularly delightful, whether it be into a crowd, off of a ledge, or into a wall. As you progress, you'll encounter tougher enemies that block your basic attacks, so you have to use the various combos you learn along the way in order to stun them or knock them down. These combos add new animations to the mix and are generally a bit nastier than your normal attacks. However, the best animations are the finishers, which you activate by matching the button prompt that appears over the head of a weakened enemy. The camera zooms in during these brutal flurries, allowing you to appreciate every blow. While Nite Owl's no slouch, Rorschach is the clear standout here: his finishers are so manic and so vicious that you can't help but cringe and cackle with delight as he just keeps hitting a guy who is clearly unconscious.
Basic attacks, combos, throws, and finishers make up the bulk of your fighting move set, but Rorschach and Nite Owl have a few other tricks up their sleeves. They can each counterattack easily, disarming any armed opponents and positioning themselves for a strike. Rorschach will even hold onto these weapons, and his brutal finishers get even nastier when there is a crowbar involved, though watching him wield a knife like a bludgeon is a bit silly. Each hero also has two special attacks that drain energy from a meter in the corner of the screen. Rorschach can do a short bull rush or freak out and do more damage for a short period of time. Nite Owl's grenade stuns anyone nearby, and he can use the electric charge in his suit to zap a large radius of foes.
As you fight your way through the rough areas of town, you'll encounter a few different breeds of thug and lowlife, some tougher than others. It's easy to die if you get yourself surrounded and try to punch your way out, but judicious use of counterattacks and special moves should be enough to get you out of any tight situation. There are throwaway actions here and there, like lever-pulling or valve-turning, and an oddly tricky lock-picking minigame that seems a bit out of place in a game that's all about brute force. Despite these extraneous tasks, a creeping sense of repetition looms over The End Is Nigh, and it's possible you'll grow weary of pounding your way through wave after wave of goons. Though the game mixes up your enemies' fighting styles in order to make you use your entire arsenal, the action can often teeter on the edge of button-mashing boredom. Those inclined to revel in the perverse joy of cracking skulls will be able to keep repetition at bay, but the relatively simple gameplay will quickly wear thin for others.

For all its merits, the combat wouldn't be nearly as fun if it wasn't paired with top-notch graphics. The sharp character models are fashioned after the movie costumes, and the smooth, realistic animations make the action exciting and extremely satisfying. You'll chuckle when Rorschach jams his hands in his overcoat immediately after furiously maiming an entire biker gang, and both he and Nite Owl pack a wickedly pleasing punch. There are occasional physics-based oddities, especially when throwing your enemies, but the animation is still consistently impressive. The detailed environments provide a rich setting for your beatdowns, and stark lights and deep shadows (occasionally too deep) create a dramatic look. The quasi-animated cutscenes provide a few pages' worth of story across the six chapters of the game, and the sinister machinations at work fit nicely into the Watchmen universe.
Though you can have some split-screen fun with a friend, it's baffling that there is no online cooperative mode. That would have made the $20 price tag a little easier to swallow, but as it stands the price feels a bit greedy. Those inclined to tire of repetitive gameplay will find the price of entry too high, but there is some value here. The impressively animated combat is fun and brutal, and the sumptuous environments provide the perfect pugilistic playground. The many unlockable combos provide some replay incentive, and the combat is surprisingly fun to come back to even after you've beaten the game. Though it may be shallow, overpriced, and likely to disappoint anyone hoping for more weighty fare, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is ultimately a simple, well-crafted game that will please those looking to dish out some good old-fashioned beatdowns.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Hammerin' Hero Hands-On

We smash the living daylights out of pretty much anything that moves in this wacky side-scroller.

As a title for a game in which you can unlock a variety of new occupations, Hammerin' Hero isn't entirely accurate. Yes, you'll begin this action-heavy side-scroller as a hammer-wielding carpenter on a quest to literally smash corporate greed, but the game's main draw is that you'll soon be crushing evil industrialists under such guises as a sushi chef, a professional baseball player, and a deep-sea diver. If that all sounds a little strange, it's because Hammerin' Hero is precisely that. But fear not: We've been spending some time with Hammerin' Hero in an effort to clear things up a bit before this PSP game's April 7 release.

The eccentric storyline goes like this: You play as a carpenter named Gen, a young man whose trade allows him to craft buildings with a ludicrously huge hammer. But when an evil corporation led by a man named Kuromoku comes rolling into town threatening to smash Gen's residential neighborhood in order to build more profitable structures, Gen takes justice into his own hands--by running and jumping from left to right smashing every bad guy he can. The Japanese neighborhoods that make up the game's environments are filled with all manner of evil construction workers, evil bulldozers, evil corporate helicopters, and so on. And your job is to smash them using a simple control scheme that allows you to jump, light attack, and heavy attack.
Every few levels, you'll unlock a new occupation that lets you do that job in a slightly different way. As a deep-sea diver, you can take out enemies from afar using an anchor on a chain, for example, while a DJ can toss records at people. More up-close-and-personal options include taking a full home-run swing with a baseball bat as a ballplayer or slapping enemies with a giant fish as a sushi chef. You commit to one occupation before the level starts, but you can visit your girlfriend and have her make you a magical bento box that gives you the ability to transform into another occupation midlevel, but only if you've picked up the necessary ingredients (for example, a tuna or a salmon) throughout previous levels.
The action in Hammerin' Hero is quick and challenging. The levels are short but are packed with a number of bosses for you to take on. And the environments are delightfully absurd, too. They start out ordinary enough, with levels taking place in Japanese residential neighborhoods and amusement parks, but eventually you'll get to a place like a live baseball game that requires you to fight your way through a demonic pitching machine and a spike-covered catcher who shoots missiles from his chest. Making things even more hectic is that you'll almost always see frantic civilians attempting to run from harm's way. The overall look of the game is chaotic, quirky, and thoroughly Japanese.
Hammerin' Hero is being brought to North America by Atlus. It may not fall into the strategic role-playing genre most people know the publisher for, but it's every bit as eccentric as their previous work. You can expect to see Hammerin' Hero released for the PSP on April 7.

By Shaun McInnis, GameSpot

New York Comic-Con: Unbound Saga First Impressions

Dark Horse Comics gave us a first look at its upcoming PSP game, Unbound Saga a sidescrolling beat 'em up developed by Vogster Entertainment. The game takes the tried and true beat 'em gameplay and marries them to a self referential story rooted in comics. We got a look at a work in progress version of the game in the Dark Horse booth and were impressed by the game's Comix Zone flavor.You'll play as Rick Ajax, a self aware comic character who's resigned himself to a life of dealing with whatever "The Maker" throws at him. Rick's unique outlook on his life gets him branded crazy by those around him which prompts him to set out and confront "The Maker". The trip takes him through Toxopolis, a crime filled run down city that looks like it sounds. Along the way he teams up with Lori Machete, an equally surly lady who's big on kicking and stabbing, that you'll eventually be able to play as well.

The game may sound a little high concept but the bottom line is Unbound Saga is basically the closest we've ever seen to a Comix Zone update. You'll fight your way through levels broken up into comic panel stages. As you clear out enemies you'll advance to the next panel by jumping up or down. The action is complicated by The Maker, whose hand you see popping up onscreen and drawing in new enemies. The combat system lets you mix punches, kicks, throws, and grabs into a painful beat down for your enemies. You'll also be able to pick up a fair amount of the objects in the level and use them to beat your enemies senseless. The beat downs pay off as downed enemies give up health power ups and experience points you can use to upgrade Rick and Lori's special moves. The basic control is pretty solid although not as responsive as we'd like it to be. You can move up, down, left and right in the fighting plane which is useful, but not as fast as we'd like. Moving forward and backward is also a little sluggish, which makes double tapping forward to run a little tricky. Running at enemies is useful since you can lead into flying kicks and punches. The comic theme is helped along by artwork from comic artist Cliff Richards who supplies the animated cutscene images that set up the story. While the hand drawn art looks sharp in the cutscenes, Vogster is using 3D graphics for the game. Rick and Lori look big on the PSP screen and show a lot of detail. The environments are really detailed as well and have a nice distressed look to them. The enemies have all that detail plus the added flourish of dissolving into a flurry of paper when they're smacked down. We have to say we liked Unbound Saga quite a bit. The Comix Zone feel definitely won us over. The combat system is a little simplistic but there's a good amount of variety to the combos and how differently Rick and Lori play. There's also a survival mode to add some replayablility to the whole package too. From the look of things so far Unbound Saga should be a welcome addition to the PSP library this year. The game's price is likely to be more welcome as, given that it's going to a PSN only release with no physical disc, Dark Horse should be able to keep the price pretty reasonable.

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce Hands-On

We team up and face new multiplayer challenges in Koei's upcoming Dynasty Warriors game.

A series that sticks to what it knows best, Dynasty Warriors has games on virtually every platform and continues to provide a venue for those who enjoy epic battles based loosely on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Koei does take a step in a new direction with its latest, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, a PlayStation Portable game that lets you play with up to three friends via ad hoc to take on a variety of strategic but brief missions and challenges. This marks the first time that you can play a Dynasty Warriors game with a friend on the PSP instead of fighting legions of enemies by yourself. We were able to play an early demo of the game at the Tokyo Game Show, but Koei stopped by to give us another build to check out before the Japanese release in February.

Instead of the massive, large-scale battles that you are used to, the game is focused more on tactics and playing together as a team. We didn't learn too much about the story, but we know that there will be three storylines based on each of the Three Kingdoms. There will be 30 characters taken from the series that you can play as, even though our demo let us play only as Zhao Yun, Xiahou Dun, and Sun Shang Xiang. Instead of button-mashing mindlessly through the mission, you need to pay attention to your friends and find the best way to approach each challenge. In the two missions we've played, the Battle at Hu Lao Gate and Yellow Turban Rebellions, you take on well-protected strongholds filled with enemies, cannons, and other bothersome obstacles that need to be destroyed.
You will still fight against what seems like an endless wave of enemies, but you'll also have to take down challenging bosses in each of these missions to progress and build up your character. The strategy involves how you approach the final portion. In our experience, we had to have at least one or two people take out turrets and cannons so that we weren't constantly bombarded from all directions. You're also on a timer, which will put some pressure on you to figure out what the best approach is.
Even though each character has his or her weapon specialty, you can choose to wield any weapon that you like in the game and switch between your primary and secondary weapon. As you level, so will your village, which acts as a hub where you can purchase items, weapons, and accessories. You can customize your weapon by using orbs, which will beef up your current weapon of choice with an element. Another way to improve your character is to gather chi, which can improve your fighting skills and let you perform special moves, such as super jumps and teleportation.
Using the X button, you can hover in the air to attack enemies, and the square and triangle buttons are used for normal and strong attacks. The L button is used to lock on to enemies, and the R button lets you dash. It's unfortunate that you have no control over the camera, though the L button does reset the view. As you're fighting, you're building up a fury gauge, rather than a Musou gauge, at the bottom left corner of the screen. Once it's full, you can hit the triangle and circle buttons at the same time to enter into a fury mode, in which your character becomes stronger for a limited period or time. Or you can use up your entire gauge and hit the triangle and circle buttons again to do a more devastating attack, which came in handy when we were destroying surrounding cannons.

As much fun as it is to button-mash your way through a hoard of well-dressed foes, Strikeforce heads in a more interesting direction by letting you play cooperatively and in a more strategic manner. Although it looks and sounds similar to previous games, it's worth looking into if you have friends with PSPs. We were told that there will be downloadable content available as well, including new items and additional quests. Stay tuned for more Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce updates as they become available. The game is set to be released in early Q2 in North America.

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

Dissidia: Final Fantasy Hands-On

Who wins in a fist fight between Final Fantasy legends?

TOKYO--It's been a little over a year since Square Enix announced its all-star game featuring the heroes and villains of the Final Fantasy universe. While we've only seem CG trailers and very few in-game scenes up until now, we were finally able to get our hands on the game at Square Enix's DK Sigma 3713 Event.
To recap what's known so far, Dissidia is an all-star brawl game where you get to fight one-on-one with characters from the Final Fantasy series. The character designs are by Tetsuya Nomura who's been working on the series since FFVII, but the game includes many older characters starting from the first installment back in 1987. Though the complete roster hasn't been announced yet, it seems so far that the developers are releasing characters from almost every game. Here's a quick list of all the characters we could confirm at Square Enix's event:


FFI: Warrior of Light, Garland
FFII: Firion, The Emperor
FFIII: Onion Knight, Cloud of Darkness
FFVI: Kefka
FFVII: Cloud, Sephiroth
FFVIII: Squall, Ultimecia
FFIX: Zidane, Kuja
FFX: Tidus, Jecht


With Final Fantasy being Square Enix's most famous franchise, the developers are obviously paying a lot of attention to giving an authentic feel to the characters. In the new trailer, Squall and Sephiroth were quite calm even in battle, whereas Tidus seemed pretty heated up when he met his father Jecht for battle. Kefka was shown for the first time, and he's kept his infamous twisted personality from FFVI. While the Cloud of Darkness preferred to kill off her adversaries on the spot, Kefka stopped her so he could have "fun" with them.
The demo that we played allowed us to pick from four characters: Warrior of Light, Tidus, Onion Knight, and Garland. As you'd expect, each of them fights in different styles. For instance, Tidus from FFX is a well-rounded fighter who uses his sword and also fights with blitzballs; in fact, one of his moves is the Jecht shot. Garland, an armored antagonist from FFI, is bigger and more of a heavy-weighted fighter who's slow but powerful. The Onion Knight from FFIII may look dinky compared to the other fighters, but looks can be deceiving. Aside of being able to use magic, his sword attack hits multiple times in a brief second, very much like it did in FFIII. The game only uses two buttons for attacking, which we'll explain later, but you can perform different kinds of attacks by holding onto a direction when you press an attack button. The attacks also change depending on whether you're in the air or on the ground. We're told that you can gain new moves as you progress through the game and power up.
As is usual for a Square Enix game, you can grow your characters and make them stronger. Though the details weren't explained at today's sessions, we did see that our character would level up after battles and also gain ability points. We also saw that we earned a knife after beating one of the characters with Tidus, though we couldn't confirm if it was actually an equitable item because the menus were disabled.
Dissidia is essentially a head-to-head fighting game, but it's quite different from the traditional type, such as Tekken or Virtua Fighter. A better comparison would be Capcom's Power Stone; especially the way that you're constantly moving around in a 3D battlefield. However, the map is bigger and the characters are much more versatile when it comes to moving around. In fact, the way that you can float while in midair melee combat or run on walls and perform extremely high jumps or air dashes, feels like you're controlling the superhuman-like Cloud from the FFVII:AC movie.
Dissidia's battle system is pretty simple, albeit a bit unique. Each player has a life bar, and there's a number displayed on top of the bar called brave points that signify the player's attacking power. Similar to most fighting games, you win when you deplete all of your opponent's life. There are two buttons you can use for attacking, and they're both essential for winning. The square button (called the HP attack) does damage to your opponent's life and is based on your number of brave points. The circle button (called the subattack) does damage to your opponent's brave points and allows you to acquire your opponent's points.
The key to winning in Dissidia is to keep hitting your opponent with the circle button because that'll power you up and make your opponent's attacks weaker at the same time. What's more, there's a big bonus if you happen to drain all of your opponent's brave points. The game goes into "brave break" time, which is where your opponent's brave points don't recover for a short while. During the brave break, you get a massive bonus of additional brave points, which allows you to strike your opponent with a powerful hit.
When we played the demo, we were constantly trading brave points with our opponent in a seesaw fashion using the circle button. Once we got the upper hand, we'd attack with the square button to inflict damage. The battle was basically a repeat of that process because your brave points reset to default once you get a clean hit on your opponent with the square button (you don't lose any if you miss). However, the game is more than just simple button smashing. Some moves require precise timing to pull off, and you also have a number of methods to dodge them, such as guarding or quick evade.
Attacking your opponent also raises a meter on the side of the life bar called the EX gauge. While the EX gauge only builds up gradually when you attack, it can be accumulated faster by collecting items called the EX force, or even better, a huge item called the EX core that sometimes appears onscreen. When the EX gauge maxes, you can go into EX mode by pressing the R and square button together, which will make you more powerful. With the Onion Warrior, for instance, you can turn into a ninja, which powers up your sword attacks, or a sage, which makes your magic attacks more powerful. In the case of Garland, he'll become tougher and won't get knocked back by attacks while he's transformed.

What's more, if you make a clean hit with the square button while in EX mode, you can follow up with another move called the EX burst by pressing the square button again. The camera zooms in on your character, and you can execute a devastating special attack. In the case of Tidus (who didn't seem to change his looks during his transformation), his EX burst was an overdrive attack from FFX. Similar to FFX, the camera zoomed in on him and a timing meter was displayed onscreen, requiring a precise button input to have the move succeed.
The demo only featured about two stages, but we saw that they're going to be themed after the FF titles. One was a beautiful crystal-like plane with streaks of light flowing all around, which was somewhat reminiscent of the crystal rooms in FFIII. The streaks of light could be used for gliding from one area of the map to another. Another stage was based on the last area of FFX and featured a lava pit with rocky platforms. Given how easy it is to avoid falling because you can double-jump and run on walls, the lava pits felt more like an aesthetic than a penalty zone. But if you fell, you'd be brought back to safety in Final Fantasy style: Warp (Dejon) magic.
Dissidia: Final Fantasy already seemed pretty solid in its current state. The graphics were top-notch as you'd expect from Square Enix and up to par with Crisis Core or perhaps even better. The game is slated for release in December in Japan, so it won't be long before we can get our hands on the final product. Square Enix has also announced that there's going to be a PSP bundle for the game. Square Enix is also collaborating with beverage maker Suntory to release another lineup of Final Fantasy potions for Dissidia.

By Hirohiko Niizumi, GameSpot

Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World Review

DBZ: Infinite World fails to live up to the standard set by previous DBZ games on the PS2.

Dragon Ball Z games have run the quality gamut from terrible to very good. Infinite World lands somewhere in between. There are only three main modes in Infinite World: Dragon Mission, Dragon Duel, and Fighter's Road. Dragon Mission is the game's story mode, taking you through the Z and Dragon Ball GT sagas in a condensing of hundreds of DBZ episodes. This amalgam covers all of the major battles including, those versus Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu, and more.

You guide Goku along an overwold map in order to trigger battles and minigames. You’re also free to replay earlier battles as an easy way to build up your bank account. Extra Zeni (money) can be used to purchase upgrades for you character in the Warrior’s Room shop. Short animated cutscenes from the anime play before and after every boss confrontation and give you an indication of what's going on in the story, but they won't make a great deal of sense if you've never watched the show. The bosses get increasingly difficult as you progress through the story mode, but for the most part they play similarly, and your strategy for taking down two different bosses like Vegeta or Frieza won't differ very much.
A smattering of minigames allow you to experience cherished scenes from the anime such as guiding Goku along Snake Way, capturing Bubbles the monkey, and other memorable moments that don't involve outright combat. Unfortunately, these side minigames are poorly designed and overly simplistic. The mission on Snake Way, for instance, has you running along the winding path moving from checkpoint to checkpoint. Another minigame has you training Goku in your space capsule by hitting a series of button combinations. It may be nice fan service, but these minigames really only serve to bring the combat to a grinding halt without being entertaining enough to justify the interruption.
Dragon Duel is the two-player versus mode in Infinite World. You can fight a friend or computer opponent with any of the game's more than 40 warriors. You have the option of playing as any of the fighters, either without their more powerful skills and attacks or with customized power-ups you can purchase from the Warrior's Room shop. Fighter's Road is a secret mode you can unlock after playing Dragon Mission, pitting you against more than 100 opponents across four maps. It's similar to Dragon Mission mode in that you guide a character from fight to fight on an overworld map, but it also provides you with an opportunity to unlock new warriors and earn more Zeni.

Despite the prevalence of minigames in Dragon Mission mode, Infinite World is still all about the combat. You fly around a battlefield with your opponent and exchange a variety of Ki beam blasts, grapples, and melee combos. You have a healthy variety of attacks, a Ki Burn ability that gives you increased speed and strength for a short period of time in exchange for Ki energy, and the ability to transform into a Super Saiyan. You can speed burst around the battlefield, but you'll have to use it wisely and avoid taking too many hits since they contribute to a fatigue meter. Once the fatigue meter reaches full capacity, it will temporarily stun you, leaving you defenseless against devastating combos and also downgrading you from an advanced form like Super Saiyan back to your default form. Overall, though, the battles are fast paced, the AI is relentless, and winning takes quite a bit of skill and strategy since not effectively evading attacks, Ki charging, or Ki burning will result in an easy defeat.
Those compliments aside, there are a few issues with the battle system. The AI is exceedingly difficult, even at the "Easy" and "Very Easy" difficulty settings. The computer opponents are just as fast and bloodthirsty, no matter what difficulty setting the game is set at. The only differences between easy and hard are how quickly your health depletes, how long it takes to recharge your Ki, and how long you stay fatigued. Still, you will have many fights that challenge your patience and tempt you to chuck your Dual Shock at a nearby wall.
Battles become more manageable when you buy advanced skills and abilities from the Warrior's Room. For each battle in the game--even those that you lose--you will earn Zeni that can be used to buy stronger Ki attacks, items such as Senzu beans that recharge your health in battle, and attributes like Fighter's Body that increase your base health. The system works fine, as long as you edit your character before going into battle and assign those acquired abilities to your few allotted slots.
The problem comes in knowing how to do this and in what abilities to purchase. At one point, Infinite World alerts you that you can purchase things from the Warrior's Room, but it provides no tutorial explaining how the system works or how the abilities benefit you. The Warrior's Room is also located on the main menu, forcing you to leave Dragon Mission mode in order to use the Zeni you earn. At first glance, you wouldn't think the two are so dependent on each other; but when your opponents in Dragon Mission suddenly possess twice as much health and strength the Warrior's Room becomes invaluable.

Infinite World will strike up feelings of deja vu for those who've played DBZ: Budokai 3. That shouldn't come as a surprise since both games were developed by Dimps. Unfortunately for Budokai 3 fans, Infinite World lacks a couple of the best fighting mechanics from its predecessor, namely the Beam Struggles and Dragon Rushes. Those two features were integral in making Budokai 3 a critical success because they helped re-create the intense power struggles that are so central to the drama of the DBZ anime. Considering how much Infinite World feels like a sequel to that game, you will likely get the disappointing feeling that this is a neutered expansion pack.
Infinite World looks as good as any other DBZ game on the PS2. The overworld map is a bit bland, as is the level design in the minigames that are scattered through Dragon Mission. In that battles themselves, though, the colors of the characters, transformations, and Ki blasts are lush and vibrant. The soundtrack is a bit ordinary, but you can choose between the English and Japanese voice tracks that DBZ purists will surely appreciate.
While its budget price may make Infinite World a tempting purchase, previous DBZ games on the PS2 have tread this ground already, and have done so with much more robust fighting systems. You would be better off revisiting Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, a superior game where the series' fast-paced combat was used to much better effect.

By Anthony Perez, GameSpot

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Review

SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 successfully returns to the fundamentals of intense, realistic WWE action and impressive, easy-to-use creation tools.

In the WWE, it's not uncommon for upstart new wrestlers to suffer a few humiliating losses before they earn their first victory. After a severely disappointing Wii debut last year, THQ's venerable SmackDown vs. Raw series has returned to the ring, having spent the year bulking up and working on the fundamentals. The work has paid off: There are more match types, the controls feel more responsive, and there are two new single-player modes that complement the multiplayer fun nicely. Though it's still hampered by a number of lingering issues, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 shows that the series can be a contender on the Wii.

The most notable improvements are in the single-player realm. The lackluster Main Event mode has been ditched in favor of a lengthy Career mode and the scripted Road to Wrestlemania. In the Career mode, you choose a superstar (existing or created) and enter a bracket to make a bid for the title belt. Each bracket has five opponents, including the current champion, and you'll have to earn stars by winning matches to get a shot at the title. You win up to five stars for each match by earning points in three areas: match results, technical, and excitement. These categories encourage you to get into the WWE superstar mindset by rewarding you for both pummeling and mocking your opponent. At the end of each match, your attributes will increase, and your health will replenish automatically based on how the match went--no micromanagement here. You'll also earn amusing awards for things such as striking your opponent 35 times or breaking a barbed-wire-wrapped plank over his or her back. It takes only a handful of successful matches to earn you a title shot, which is great because it keeps your career moving along at a good clip. This action-packed Career mode is the perfect complement to the Create a Superstar mode, and winning belt after belt as you bulk up your created character is satisfying and fun.
The other single-player mode, Road to Wrestlemania, features six unique story arcs that let you play as various WWE superstars (including The Undertaker and Triple H) and defeat numerous foes (and a few nemeses) on your quest for Wrestlemania glory. Matches are interspersed with story scenes packed with typical WWE action, so fans of outrageous melodrama will be pleased. In keeping with traditional SmackDown vs. RAW strengths, the superstar models and entrances are impressive, but these stand in stark contrast to the crowds that, though fine from a distance, look like Nintendo 64 rejects up close. Character animations are quite good, though they are prone to clipping and still lack fluidity when maneuvering around the ring. The audio remains a weak point, dampening the hard-hitting action, and though the dismal announcers from years past have been improved quite a bit, the sound design is still in need of an upgrade.
Despite how it may sound, the action is indeed hard-hitting. Flicking the remote executes punches, kicks, and the like, and doing so while holding A will trigger a simple grapple. Holding B and flicking the remote results in a strong grapple, one that requires you to move the remote when prompted to fully execute the move. Usually this can be accomplished by merely flailing the remote briefly (or sometimes doing nothing at all), but if you're more technically inclined, you can follow the onscreen prompts to do specific moves. These prompts also crop up when you perform a signature or finishing move. The camera adjusts to a cinematic angle and the action slows down as you grab, punch, elbow, kick, or slam your opponent by swinging the remote. Giving your foe Triple H's Pedigree is so much more satisfying when you can swing the remote up to lift him or her into the air, and then swing it down to send him or her crashing to the floor. The motion-sensitive controls also generate some extra excitement during character entrances, which are now interactive and let you throw up your arms in triumph or gesture to the crowd. There is still some imprecision to deal with, especially during uninterruptible animations, but overall the control scheme feels much improved and the motion controls spice things up nicely.

The wide variety of new match types range from ladder and table contests to a 30-man Royal Rumble, and cover everything in between. The under-the-mat arsenal is much improved, offering such implements as kendo sticks, sledgehammers, and fire extinguishers. Larger matches can get a bit tricky because the camera sometimes seems confused as to how to frame the action, and it's possible to walk off the screen in tag-team battles. Regardless, these improvements are a welcome change from last year's barren offering.
In addition to the Career and Road to Wrestlemania modes, the competent AI and unique wrestler abilities make playing single-player much more appealing in SmackDown vs. Raw 2009. No longer content to stand around drooling, computer opponents will actively attack you, tag their partners (you included), and use environmental elements reasonably well. Though the Road to Wrestlemania and early stages of the Career mode will seem easy to experienced players, it won't feel like you're playing against brainless apes. There are also new, unique wrestler abilities that existing superstars have and created superstars can earn. The effects range from attribute boosts (the ability to remove the belt in a ladder match more quickly) to enhanced abilities (the ability to regenerate a small amount of health). Although these abilities aren't particularly powerful, they can come in handy during tight matches.
You might not have tight matches against the computer, but you are sure to find tough competition online. You can use SmackDown, Raw, ECW, or created superstars as you face off against friends or strangers in any of the match types that support one to four players. (Six-man matches and Royal Rumbles are available locally only.) Against tougher players, any miscues due to bad position or odd animation are likely to cost you dearly, and once your opponent has you on the ropes, you'll be hard-pressed to reverse your way out of them. You'll also find yourself frantically spinning the analog stick a lot; it's the ill-conceived and thumb-fatiguing way to make you recover quickly. Impressively, the matches are generally lag-free, though you might have trouble filling a four-man match during odd hours.

Of course, SmackDown vs. Raw wouldn't be itself without the still-impressive Create a Superstar tool. Once again, with a little time and patience, you can create almost anyone you like, from famous celebrities to hideous abominations. You can then customize your character's move set to craft a fighting style and choreograph your ring entrance to truly strut your stuff.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 benefits greatly by increasing its scope. You can now participate in almost any type of match your heart desires, and even pull a wider variety of weapons from under the mat. The new single-player modes offer hours of entertainment, and online play further extends replayability. The tweaked motion controls add an extra bit of excitement to the proceedings, and though some elements still need improvement, SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is ultimately successful because it embraces the dramatic fights and outrageous showmanship that are the heart and soul of the WWE.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Call of Duty: World at War Review

Impressive controls, exciting multiplayer, and a dramatic campaign make Call of Duty: World at War a great success.

After getting passed over by 2007's stellar Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Wii owners get their first shot at the revitalized series with Call of Duty: World at War. Though World at War treads the familiar ground of World War II, the detailed, realistic locations and dramatic story elements make this trip to the past feel fresh. The remote and Nunchuk perform admirably in combat, despite a few missteps, and the well-tuned weapons make firefights intense and satisfying. Add in the engaging multiplayer system that made Modern Warfare a smash hit, and you've got one of the best shooters available for the Wii.

There are a number of great components in Call of Duty: World at War, but none of them would work without the fully capable control scheme. You move with the analog stick and aim by pointing the remote. As a handy aid to newcomers and veterans alike, there are plenty of options to tweak various sensitivities and movement speeds. In the default control scheme, you pull the B trigger to fire and use the Z button to look down your sights, which is a crucially important ability, especially in multiplayer. The C button toggles your stance, and the A button lets you sprint or, when stationary or strafing, lock the camera for steadier aiming. There are a number of slightly tweaked alternate control schemes, including a Wii Zapper mode that, if you can endure the frequent twisting it requires, is actually pretty fun.
The default controls feel balanced and well-mapped, but there are a few hang-ups. The fast and deadly melee attack is performed by shaking the Wii Remote or hitting down on the D pad. Unfortunately, shaking will shift your aim abruptly, often causing you to miss your target. The D pad is the better option, but melee attacks will still tend to go astray more often than they should. The D pad is also used for switching weapons, so resting your thumb in the A-button/D-pad area is generally advisable. Unfortunately, grenades are mapped to the + button, and shifting your thumb halfway down the remote can be awkward. It's a minor inconvenience, though, and all things considered, World at War's control scheme is well-suited for the rigors of war.
In the campaign, you split time between two soldiers in two offensive theaters: the Russian push out of their homeland and into the heart of Germany, and the American struggle to wrest Pacific islands from the Japanese. Though you'll alternate between them every few levels, the campaign feels like one solid progression thanks to the adept pacing. Each soldier's journey begins at a low point. Weaponless and surrounded by the enemy, you get a taste of the despair that many soldiers are never rescued from. Though the emotional tone eventually rises toward triumph, you never quite forget the fate you nearly met. The first few levels are a hard scrabble as you and your fellow soldiers try to gain a foothold for your country, whereas later levels are suffused with a sense of hard-won momentum as you fight bigger battles and push closer to your enemies' capitals. On your journey, you'll traverse a number of diverse, well-detailed environments that set an impressive and immersive backdrop for the action.

Throughout each level, you are accompanied by a superior officer who sets the emotional tone through well-acted dialogue. The vengeful, spitfire Russian pumps up your adrenaline to intoxicating levels, whereas the grim, determined American provides a sobering influence. This grim sobriety is further enforced by the actual WII videos, photos, and statistics presented in stylish interchapter cutscenes. The message is, by nature, a conflicted one: Though you may feel like an action hero, you are actually participating in the most horrid of human endeavors. How you ultimately feel about this message will depend on your personal disposition, but suffice it to say that the elevated emotional timbre makes for an exciting campaign.
Also exciting? Bayonets and flamethrowers, the two standout weapons in World at War. You wield both in the American campaign, using them to enthusiastically dispatch enemies in trenches and fend off the aggressive banzai raiders. These raiders snipe from the treetops, or pop out of holes and charge you with merciless determination, and this aggression makes the American campaign feel uniquely tense. The Russian campaign is slightly more predictable, but it remains vigorous throughout and ends in a spectacularly satisfying way. Though you'll spend a good amount of time hiding behind cover and picking off enemies, you'll find it somewhat tricky to snipe far-off foes. You may have the patience to become an ace sniper, or you may resort to bold charges shielded by smoke grenades; either way, the campaign is so exciting and well-paced that you're bound to have a blast.
Playing with other folks is a blast as well, and Call of Duty: World at War offers two ways to do this. The first is to play the campaign in cooperative mode. Instead of splitting the screen for two players, World at War relegates the second player to piggyback status. The first player does everything he or she would normally do: move, crouch, aim, shoot, throw grenades, melee attack, and so on. The second player is merely a second target reticle: He or she can shoot, reload, and switch between two guns, but can't control camera or movement. This offers a fun, casual way for a friend to join in the action (with the ability to drop in or out at any time), but it can be a bit disorienting to have your view controlled by someone else.

The other option is to take your skills online and dive into World at War's excellent and engaging multiplayer system. The hook here is experience points, which you gain by winning matches or completing one of the many in-game challenges (such as getting a certain amount of headshots with a certain weapon). As you earn these points, you'll rank up and earn access to new weapons, new accessories (such as sights and suppressors), and new perks. Perks are special abilities that grant you a wide variety of bonuses, but you can choose only three. This introduces an engaging element of customization: Will you choose to toughen up by increasing your health and bullet damage, or will you go the stealth route and increase your sprint speed while becoming invisible to enemy recon planes? Perks are well balanced, and you have multiple save slots that enable you to easily switch between your various pretweaked loadouts and fully take advantage of this deep, engaging system. There are eight maps, but only two game types: Free for All and Team Deathmatch. There are different lobbies based on player skill, and you can travel around from game to game in a party if you exchange friend codes with another player. Matches are fast-paced and rarely hindered by lag, and despite the limited mode options, this is one of the best online multiplayer experiences available to Wii owners.
All told, Call of Duty: World at War is a great first-person shooter and undoubtedly among the best that the Wii has to offer. The controls are smooth, responsive, and immersive, despite a few sundry hang-ups. The lengthy campaign is dramatic and exciting, and it's fun to replay levels with a friend along for the ride. The icing on the cake, the online multiplayer, is a great success despite its somewhat limited scope. So if you're looking for a reason to try a first-person shooter on the Wii, or you're a veteran remote-wielder looking for a new battlefield, look no further than Call of Duty: World at War.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Updated Hands-On

We came, we saw, we played a new level of Atari's new ghostbusting adventure.

Spengler. Stantz. Zeddemore. Venkman. And you. Welcome to your new job as the fifth Ghostbuster in Atari's upcoming video game adaption of the hit '80s movie series, Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The publisher, who acquired publishing rights to the game after it was sold off by Activision, showed off the latest build of the game at a recent press event. It was the first time we'd seen the game since E3, and, based on our time with the game, it seems like developers at Terminal Reality (and Red Fly Studio, which is handling the Wii version) have been keeping their heads down and focused on the ghosts, despite the game's publishing turmoil.

Unofficially billed by producers as the "third Ghostbusters movie," Ghostbusters: The Video Game is set two years after Ghostbusters II and finds the four original Ghostbusters in pretty good standing with New York City and its citizens. However, because catching ghosts isn't cheap, the city government decides to bring in some oversight to the 'busters operation in the form of Walter Peck, the quartet's bureaucratic nemesis in the original movie. Peck will be in charge of Ghostbusters oversight, constantly keeping the heroes aware of the ever-increasing costs of doing their particular form of business.
Atari was showing off both the 360 and Wii versions of Ghostbusters, and each version of the game featured a slightly different take on the same level. In the level, the Ghostbusters are in the familiar setting of the New York Public Library, investigating the elderly paranormal librarian (who happens to be the first ghost encountered in the original movie). Just as in the movie, it's only a matter of time before the ghost's calm demeanor turns ugly in a big way.
Before the librarian blew her top, however, we got chance to check out the basics of gameplay and combat. Ghostbusters is a third-person action game, with a camera that sits just over the shoulder of your character, giving you a view not just of the action happening in front of you, but also your proton pack, the nuclear-powered high-tech gizmo that serves as your weapons arsenal. As in the movies, the proton pack is used to fire a stream of energy with which you can wrangle rogue ghosts into a trap. The proton pack in the games is more flexible than the one used in the film, and you'll be able to upgrade your pack as you make your way through the game. These different weapon types include a stasis stream that you can use to freeze a ghost, or a shock blast you can use to defeat them. Your proton pack will also clue you in to your character's remaining health and other vital information.
You'll need to make full use of the proton pack in Ghostbusters because in addition to trapping ghosts, you'll also be fighting enemies as you make your way through the levels. As we made our way through the library level, we fought several spirits that took on physical presence by forming makeshift bodies with the many books scattered on shelves; a quick blast of the proton pack was all it took to bring them down.
Destroying ghosts is fun but your main goal in the game will be trapping certain spirits that are causing trouble. In the both the 360/PS3 and the Wii version, you'll first need to capture your ghost in the stream emanating from your proton pack. You can also stun the ghosts once they're caught by slamming them to the ground. The mechanics for trapping ghosts differes depending on the version you're playing. In the 360/PS3 game, you'll use a combination of the analog sticks and the triggers; over on the Wii, things get a bit more complicated. Aiming the stream is as simple as pointing your Wii Remote--but once a ghost is caught, an arrow will appear on either side of the aiming reticule, indicating which way you need to move the remote to wrangle your ghostly target. It took us several tries to get it right, and while it might get easier with practice, we wouldn't mind if the developer went back and re-examined this aspect of the controls.

Controls are the big differentiator between the 360/PS3 versions of Ghostbusters and the Wii game, but it isn't the only difference. Unlike the 360/PS3 game, which is going for an exaggerated realism, the Wii version has a more cartoonish presentation, with stylized characters and slightly less menacing-looking monsters. Even though both games cover largely the same territory in terms of levels and dialogue, the Wii game is obviously being aimed at a younger crowd. Both versions will also feature the impressive damage effects, where seemingly every wall, column, or piece of furniture you blast with your proton pack will suffer accordingly.
With full involvement from the original cast members Dan Akroyd (The Blues Brothers, Earth vs. the Spider), Bill Murray Lost in Translation, Garfield: The Movie, Ernie Hudson (Oz, Best of the Best: Without Warning), and Harold Ramis (Stripes, Orange County), there's little doubt that this game has the Ghostbusters cred. What remains to be seen is if the game makes busting ghosts as much fun as it seemed in the original movies. We'll know when the game makes its release in 2009, likely just in time to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original movie.

By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot

Disaster: Day of Crisis Review

Wielding more Wii Remote-waggling moves than you can shake a quake at, Disaster's lack of clear gameplay focus has resulted in a game that is competent at best and never compelling.

In Disaster: Day of Crisis, spiky-haired protagonist Ray has to overcome floods, fires, a hurricane, an earthquake, a tsunami, two volcanic eruptions, and even an attack from a bear. And there are as many different gameplay styles in Disaster as there are natural calamities. Practically every Wii Remote-waggling gimmick dreamed up for the Wii (so far) has been thrown into the mix, resulting in a game that's unfocused and scatterbrained.
If you think the laundry list of natural disasters Ray faces in Disaster sounds like a pastiche of bad Hollywood movies, you'd be spot-on. The game certainly has cinematic aspirations, with its over-the-top story told through long and frequent cutscenes interspersed amongst the action. And not only are there enough calamities to send Roland Emmerich into fits of ecstasy, but there's also a terrorist threat: Ex-Marine and now rescue team member Ray has to deal with a group of disgruntled army veterans who have stolen two nuclear warheads. Not that our heroic Ray cares much about that. His main motivation throughout Disaster is to rescue the sister of his dead rescue team partner from the terrorists. The game's dialogue is cheesier than a wheel of cheddar, and the big set pieces are straight-up Michael Bay fever dreams, but it is this relentless absurdity that lifts Disaster's story to "so bad it's good" material. After all, if you don't think an attack chopper getting taken down by a tsunami or our hero getting attacked by a bear as he's trying to escape a volcanic explosion is cool, then you need to redefine your sense of awesome.

What's not so awesome is the constant chopping and changing when it comes to gameplay. Part on-rails shooter, part arcade racer, and part a collection of Wii Remote-based minigames, Disaster is a disjointed experience that has some competent sections but no compelling ones. There are several good concepts here that are woefully underutilised--victims of Disaster's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach. The most apparent one is Ray's health system. In addition to having the typical hit points and stamina bar, the system features a heart-rate meter and a lung indicator. If you run too much, Ray's heart rate increases, forcing him to stop. Hanging around in smoky environments will cause Ray's lungs to gradually degrade, and you'll have to find an area with clear air or risk having Ray collapse. Neither of these features is used to any effect in the game; the only time you'll need to be mindful of the lung indicator is late in the game in a level that's set in a smoky forest. The heart rate meter is even less relevant, because at no time will you need to worry about Ray running out of puff.
Most of your time in Disaster is dedicated to its on-rails shooter side, which has a Time Crisis vibe to it thanks to the ability to take cover from enemy fire. Taking cover by pressing the Z button on the Nunchuk makes you invulnerable to enemy fire, although large explosions (such as those from RPG-wielding baddies) can still hurt because of their splash damage. Aiming is as simple as pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, while reloading is done by shaking the Nunchuk. You can carry four different weapons into battle, which can be selected on the fly using the remote's D-pad. Weapon variety isn't a strong point--while there are more than 15 to choose from, many of those are just slight variations (such as firing speed) of the same weapon. Shooting sections are easy for the most part since red reticles will appear on enemies when they're about to fire (once again, like in Time Crisis). And just like in every other light-gun-based on-rails shooter, enemies don't seem to care much about self-preservation and will often stand in the open waiting for you to pop out and shoot them.
When you're not shooting, you'll be navigating disaster-ruined locales, avoiding dangers and helping out any survivors you find in your path. It's here that Disaster's mountain of mixed gameplay comes in, throwing in new controls seemingly every few minutes, many of which get used only once in the entire game. Running away from a raging fire in a subway, for example, requires you to rapidly waggle the remote and Nunchuk. Avoiding obstacles while being swept away in a flash flood sees you having to quickly wave the remote left or right. Using a parachute has the remote and Nunchuk acting as steering toggles to change the angle of descent. There are plenty of these events in Disaster, and none of them are tough. Dealing with survivors is handled in the same minigame style--running across a stranded person in Disaster starts one of several different games. One requires you to wash away dirt from wounds by pointing the remote at the affected areas and then to wrap the injuries in bandages by rapidly twirling the Nunchuk joystick. Another sees you mimicking CPR by rapidly waving the remote down in time with a person's heartbeat. Some are as simple as waving the remote once to reach out to people hanging from ledges or rapidly pressing the A button to lift a heavy object off a victim. All of these actions have to be performed within a set time limit, but the game is extremely forgiving, and you can simply try again if time runs out. The only challenge is in finding the survivors, because some are more difficult to reach than others.

Finally, Disaster also dips its toes into arcade driving. In several instances Ray commandeers a vehicle in order to catch or avoid bad guys or to flee from natural hazards, such as the blast wave from a volcano's explosion. These driving scenes are controlled by holding the remote sideways and using it to steer--the 2 button is for accelerating, 1 is for braking, and A is for handbrake turns. This control scheme doesn't allow for much finesse, so most driving sections are either too easy or too frustrating (particularly since the cars Ray drives have a laughable tendency to flip over at the slightest bump).
Disaster is not a great-looking game, even for the Wii. Textures and environments are rather bland, which is a pity since the game could have looked much more vibrant with all the explosions you'll encounter. Character models are fairly lacklustre and are more reminiscent of late-era PlayStation 2-quality graphics than the sharper, more vibrant visuals of many Wii games. Sound is also poor, particularly when it comes to the unconvincing effects you'll hear. The sound of Ray's shoes is particularly annoying--it sounds as though he's wearing tap shoes most of the time, and the awful clacking noise when his boots hit concrete is certain to drive you batty.
That's not to say the game is all bad in the looks department. Some scenes of immense destruction--such as buildings collapsing practically on top of Ray--are impressive. But that's the problem with Disaster: Day of Crisis. The good is generally overshadowed by the mediocre, leaving you with a game that has potential but never comes close to realising it. It's fun in parts, but as a whole, Disaster is no earth-shattering experience.

By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot

Rise of the Argonauts Review

Jason spends too much time talking and not nearly enough time fighting in this Greek mythology-inspired action-RPG.

Loosely based on the same Greek myth that inspired the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts, Rise of the Argonauts is an action-oriented role-playing game in which you assume the role of King Jason of Iolcus and go in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. All manner of monsters stand between you and your prize, and doing battle with them is a lot of fun. The same can't be said for all of the time you have to spend wandering around and talking to other characters, unfortunately, and the wildly inconsistent frame rate makes even the stop-motion special effects in the aforementioned movie look silky smooth by comparison.

Rise of the Argonauts gets off to a shaky start. The assassination of Jason's bride on their wedding day in the intro sequence ensure that the story is instantly compelling, but poor voice acting, awkward camera angles, questionable animation (Jason negotiating stairs is a must-see for all the wrong reasons), and numerous visual quirks waste no time in conspiring against it. Furthermore, there's not much combat early on, so much of your time is spent trying to navigate Jason's labyrinthine palace and conversing with guards who, save for their different-colored uniforms, all look identical. Iolcus, like the handful of other locations you'll visit after acquiring the Argo, affords very few opportunities for exploration, but it still manages to be confusing enough in its design that you need to refer to the crudely drawn map to locate mission objectives in a timely fashion.
The high point of Rise of the Argonauts is undoubtedly the combat; Jason is skilled in the use of swords, spears, and maces, and he carries one of each as well as a shield at all times. The controls are uncomplicated and responsive, and it's good that they're the same no matter which weapon you're wielding, because you're encouraged to switch between them on the fly. None of the enemies are particularly intelligent, but they're varied enough that you need to employ different weapons and strategies to get the better of them. Your spear can be used to keep overly aggressive enemies at a distance, while your mace is a good choice for destroying the shields of enemies attempting to hide behind them, for example. Putting your own indestructible shield to good use is crucial early on, but as you progress you become much more powerful and can spend more time on the offensive.
Interestingly, you need to go into the options menu if you want any kind of heads-up display for your health during combat. By default, you're supposed to look for visual clues such as blood on the clothing of Jason and his allies to know when they're in trouble, but the combat is so fast-paced that this isn't always possible. Adding the HUD makes it much easier to know when Jason's health is low, though it's not always important because, in keeping with his mythological status, he's a tough guy to keep down. When your health drops to zero you don't die; rather, you enter a "state of grace" in which the screen blurs and you have 10 seconds or so to avoid taking any more damage before you regenerate around half of your health. You'll die if you sustain a single hit during that time, but there are very few enemies who can keep up as you frantically run and roll around.

There are a number of ways in which you become a more formidable fighter as the story progresses. You'll be joined by a handful of allies who will fight alongside you two at a time, you'll be able to add more powerful weapons and armor to your arsenal, and you'll learn new abilities by gaining favor with the gods Ares, Apollo, Athena, and Hermes. Each of the four gods has a skill tree composed of around 25 different "aspects" arranged into tiers so that more powerful ones become available only late in the game. The aspects vary a great deal and include both passive abilities and god powers that must be triggered manually in combat. Passive abilities include things like regenerating health anytime you kill an enemy, doing more damage to shields, and making your allies more powerful. God powers, which are fun but rarely needed outside of the most challenging difficulty mode, include temporary effects such as increased damage, explosions, and the ability to turn enemies into stone.
To purchase any given aspect you need to earn enough favor with the appropriate god to unlock it, which can be an interesting challenge in itself. The most obvious way to earn favor with gods is by dedicating to them any deeds you've accomplished. You can do this at shrines scattered throughout the world or, less elegantly, via an option in the pause menu. When you dedicate a deed to one of the gods, you earn an amount of favor proportional to the scale of your accomplishment. Settling a dispute among two traders is unlikely to impress in the same way that lopping off the heads of 25 enemies is, for example. The second way to curry favor with a god is by selecting dialogue choices that are clearly labeled as being appreciated by them. This can make the act of choosing dialogue a mechanical one if you care more about pleasing a specific god than you do about your interaction with whomever you're talking to, but the conversations feel so unnatural anyway that this is as good a way as any to get through them quickly.
It's unfortunate that so much of your time in Rise of the Argonauts is spent in conversation, because much of the dialogue is poorly written and the voice acting is even worse. It's conceivable that one is the victim of the other, but certainly neither deserves any credit for keeping the story compelling. Even on the rare occasions that the script and the actors work well together, poor sound design results in unnatural pauses and in volume levels that compete with background noise or have you reaching for your TV remote. The lack of believable expressions on characters' faces doesn't help matters, nor do the load screens that frequently appear at the most inopportune times--occasionally so quickly after a piece of dialogue that there's some doubt as to whether or not the character talking was even allowed to finish.

To say that Rise of the Argonauts has pacing issues would be an understatement of Olympian proportions; so much of your time is spent running around and talking to people that combat feels like a rare treat rather than a focus of the game. It's a real shame that getting to the end of this adventure is as much a test of patience as it is a test of skill, because the combat gets increasingly satisfying as your arsenal of moves and equipment grows. It's true that only boss encounters will pose any real challenge on the default difficulty setting toward the end, but by then that feels appropriate because you're wielding godlike weapons and powers that can literally call down lightning from the heavens. With a greater emphasis on combat and fewer technical shortcomings, Rise of the Argonauts could have been easy to recommend. As it is, though, this is a great story poorly told.

By Justin Calvert, GameSpot

Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon Review

If you enjoy tedious objectives, racially insensitive humor, and ugly graphics, the latest Destroy All Humans is right up your alley.

Developer Sandbox Games was shut down by THQ nearly a full month before Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon hit retail shelves, and the PlayStation 3 version of the game was canceled shortly thereafter. After a short time with the Xbox 360 version of the game you'll probably wish THQ had put it out of its misery, too. The game's visuals are dated, and its insensitive, stereotypical portrayal of the Chinese (among other ethnicities) is appalling. Add in repetitive objectives and played-out humor and there's no reason to waste your time with this shoddy excuse for a game.

As in previous DAH games, you play as Crypto, a curmudgeonly, smart-alecky alien with a dislike for the human race. The game takes place in the 1970s, and Crypto has his hands full dealing with the Mob in what's supposed to be Las Vegas. After a few unexpected attackers try to off him, he realizes someone or something other than the Mob wants him out of the way. Crypto sets off across five open-world environments that include faux Vegas, a poor man's Hollywood, and a pseudo China, among others.
While you're free to run or hover around the game's large worlds, there's not a whole lot that's exciting to do. If you're in your flying saucer you can destroy buildings, but rather than them crumbling to the ground after a huge explosion, they melt like a stick of butter left in the hot sun. You can zap humans and bad guys with a number of weapons including the not-funny-anymore anal probe. You can take control of peoples' bodies, make them dance, and use telekinesis to grab and throw them, but you're best off sticking with your default weapon and powering it up with the DNA you earn for finishing missions. Likewise, the many weapon options available to you while in your flying saucer are generally less useful than the default ray. You might have a bit of fun messing around with a few of the tools of destruction made available to you, but the large number of options is little more than a novelty.
It feels that rather than come up with interesting objectives, the developer made a bunch of weapons and occasionally forces you to use them in artificially constrained ways. Rather than allowing you to land your saucer anywhere, the game gives you only a few landing spots, most of which have to be unlocked by playing a minigame, which in turn forces you to use a gun or skill you likely wouldn't use. This is so contrived that the game even makes a joke about it. Yes, making the people who were foolish enough to buy your game perform unnecessary, cumbersome tasks is really funny. Mission objectives start off simple: shoot some guys, protect someone or something, blow up a building, use telekinesis to carry a person to a different location, and so on. As you progress, the game will lengthen these objectives and then chain them together. This means that halfway through the game--and for the rest of the game--you'll be suffering through long missions with objectives you've long since tired of.
The first few Destroy All Humans were amusing and relied heavily on parody and tongue-in-cheek dialogue, but Crypto's act has grown old. He rarely shuts up, and his incessant yapping and bickering grates the nerves. Thankfully, mission objectives are usually clearly displayed, so there's no penalty for skipping the game's painfully frequent and agonizingly long cutscenes. It's bad enough that the cutscenes are frequent and the dialogue constant; what's worse is that much of the game's humor relies on racial stereotypes. The dialogue and accents of many of the characters and citizens in the game's Chinese levels might have been "acceptable" 30 or 40 years ago, but today they're downright offensive and reason enough to avoid this game.

Path of Furon's visuals are also offensive, but in a different way. The game proudly proclaims to use the Unreal Engine, but you'd be hard-pressed to see the results in the finished product. Perhaps they licensed the original Unreal Engine and not Unreal 3. There's not much of the game that looks like it belongs on the Xbox 360. The frame rate is mediocre at best, textures are low-res, huge buildings will pop in right in front of you, and the backgrounds look blurry, as if there were Vaseline on the lens. It gets worse: many of the cutscenes have no lip-synching, camera transitions during cutscenes (which often feel unfinished) are choppy, characters are poorly animated, citizens skate around the city, and explosions are pitiful. Even Crypto looks terrible.
A few multiplayer minigames are available, but they add no value to this already miserable game. If you've somehow stuck with this tired series since its inception, you'll probably have some fun with Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon, but it offers nothing to anyone with a reasonable amount of taste.

By Aaron Thomas, GameSpot